Smarter Balanced Meets Federal Peer Review for Grades 3-8 and High School

In September, South Dakota became the first Smarter Balanced member state to meet all federal peer review requirements for the math and ELA/literacy high school assessment.

That federal peer review letter also served as notification that Smarter Balanced meets all of the statutory and regulatory United States Department of Education peer review requirements for the general assessments in mathematics and Reading/Language Arts for High School. In August, Nevada announced it met peer review requirements for grades 3-8.

The federal peer review process began in Fall 2015. Smarter Balanced Executive Director Tony Alpert commends the collaboration among teams that made this accomplishment possible.

“This effort required an enormous amount of work by Smarter Balanced staff, the Smarter Balanced members who served as advisors, and external experts who worked together to document the evidence submitted for peer review. We extend our appreciation to all of our members for their dedication and support.”

The peer review designation for both Nevada and South Dakota is additional validation that the Smarter Balanced summative assessments for grades 3-8 and High School in mathematics and ELA/literacy provide accurate information regarding students’ college and career readiness and is accessible to all students in support of equity.